Sufi and ibn Dunya

Sufi:  As salamu ‘alaykum my brother, tell me what ails ya?

ibn Dunya:  Wa ‘alaykum as salam Sufi Shaykh, I hope you have the words to heal me, but my sickness isn’t a physical one, it’s mental.

S:  Yes I did think when you came in, someone walking around in public with that haircut could not be of a sane frame of mind. Hehehehe (laughing to himself), I kid young man, please go on.

iD:  (laughs nervously) Yes erm that’s funny.  Actually my friend cut my hair.

S:  A friend?  What kind of friend would do that?  Shall I get him for you?  I am trained in Silat you know, hehehe (laughing on his own again) I kill me sometimes.

iD:  O Shaykh you are making fun of me but I’m really ill, I think I’m depressed.  Please I need you to cure me, I heard you have helped many people.

S:  No more joking my friend, sometimes a little laughter is the best cure for sadness.

By the will of Allah we will try to make you better, most physical and mental sicknesses are rooted in some sort of spiritual disease.  Didn’t our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, say “No man fills a vessel worse than his stomach..?” And “an unbeliever eats and fills seven intestines whereas a believer uses only one” also that “Allah hates those who eat excessively.”  Yet we find people transgress and eat more than they need, and what is the root of this?  The spiritual disease of greed.

This advice should suffice if you grasp the apparent and hidden meaning behind them, if not tell me your problems.

iD:  Thank you for your advice but I actually have quite a healthy, balanced diet.  My problem is that I am unhappy with my life, I am not happy with the cards I have been dealt in my life.

S:  (Thinks to himself: “My first reply did answer him, only if he pondered more deeply)

iD: Am I an unbeliever for what I said O Shaykh?  I’m admitting I’m not happy with Allah’s will.

S: No my friend you certainly are not an unbeliever. The fact you have taken your time to come to see me, to ask for help, concerned you may be an unbeliever, proves you are a Mu’min with taqwa of Allah.  Now tell me what specifically are you unhappy with in your life?

iD:  Everything… My job - I wish I was earning more money, my body - I wish I was taller and slimmer, my house - I wish I had a bigger one, my friends - I wish I had more interesting ones, my personality - I wish I was more intelligent, more funny….

S:  Stop, stop.  Do you not see this is from the hunger of your nafs (lower self)?  It can never be satiated with more dunya.  Job - be grateful you have a job many don’t, body - be thankful you are not ill, house - you still have a house…

iD:  (interrupting the Shaykh)  I’m sorry Shaykh but I’ve heard all this before, look to those who have less than you and all that, but  all I see are people with more than me.  I meet people who are less capable than me but have better jobs, why did Allah make me smaller than others?  Why can’t I have a bigger house?  If I had these things I would be happier and more grateful to God. Please Shaykh that kind of advice may work for simple people but not for sophisticated people with complicated lives.

S:  (Silently prays: “God bless the simple folk) My friend, sophisticated person or not the problems are usually very simple and often the same.  This is love of dunya over the akhira.  Islam means to “submit”, to submit your affairs to Allah, to put your trust in Allah, your faith and hopes all in Allah.  You were not created for the dunya, you were created for the akhira, to be with Allah.

Your nafs is not a complicated thing; it only wants one thing - MORE.  You are a clever man you can see this want of the nafs will never be satiated, no matter if you give it more, it will still want.. yes you guessed it - more.  Even if you were given the whole Earth with everything in it, it would just want another planet!

iD:  Please go on Shaykh, my heart is listening to your words.

S:  My friend you need to change your world view, change it to an akhiri view!  Your purpose in this world is to know God, through worship.  Worship in prayer, your state with God, your relationships with people, your work, the way you treat the environment.  You work hard to make these things as best and beautiful as possible. 

After your hard work the condition you are placed in; your physical state, your wealth, your job all of those things are exactly what God wants you to have.  Be thankful for it and be patient during difficult predicaments.  Also know that these situations you face are all from the infinite wisdom of Allah so that you could know him.  These things are given in perfect measure for you, the best possible combination for you to know Him.  You may think you would be better off with a different job, different house, no!  This is your nafs talking again. This wisdom warrants repeating:

The share of the dunya apportioned to you is the perfect amount you need to fulfil your purpose in life.

Please ponder on this.  Whether religious or irreligious this benefits all.  If you internalise this wisdom and live by it you will find a priceless contentment in your life.  If you don’t, no matter how much dunya you amass you will never be satisfied.

iD:  Wow Shaykh, you have blown me away.  I will reflect on your words and pray my state changes to that which God will be pleased with me.

S:  Yes may Allah always guide you, and lastly get a decent haircut.

Teleportation? Invisibility?? Time Travel???

Teleportation and forcefields possible within decades, says Professor Michio Kaku

[The Abdal (people of the step) and other Awliya have achieved these things hundreds of years ago!!]

By Matthew Moore

Teleportation and forcefields could become scientific realities within decades, and time travel will also be possible in the future, according to one of the world’s leading physicists.

Professor Michio Kaku of City University in New York has studied a range of scientific “impossibilities” and concluded that most will almost certainly be achieved as our knowledge expands.

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright Applying the rule that unless something breaks a law of physics “then it’s not only possible, it is sure to be built someday”, Prof Kaku has established a hierarchy of “impossibilities”, separating those phenomena that are sure to remain science fiction from those which are likely to become reality at some point in the future.
Teleportation, telepathy, forcefields and invisibility are Class 1 impossibilities, meaning they are likely to be realisable within a few decades or at most a century.Class II impossibilities may take centuries or millennia to perfect, while Class III impossibilities are truly impossible.

Class 1

Teleportation is likely to be achieved through “quantum entanglement”, a property that allows connections to be formed - and information transmitted - between particles many miles apart.
Applying the process to larger objects like people is just a scientific “engineering problem”, that is likely to be solved in time, Prof Kaku writes in his new book Physics of the Impossible.
Similarly, telepathy will be made possible by improved MRI machines that can effectively read minds, and electrodes that can then pass the information into the brains of other humans.

Invisibility will probably be achieved using a recently-built “metamaterial” capable of bending light rays, he argues. Alien life will most likely be discovered within decades as our ability to analyse the universe improves.

Class II

Time travel is a Class II impossibility because, while it need not break the laws of physics, science still has major knowledge gaps to cross to make it a reality, Prof Kaku believes.
“What makes them [Class II impossibilities] so difficult is that they generally require vast amounts of energy, and their underlying physics is not totally understood,” he writes in this week’s New Scientist magazine.
The research of Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and the physicist Kip Thorne has shown that time travel is theoretically possible, but no-one has yet found a way to produce the energy necessary to keep a “wormhole” open.
“This technology is only achievable for a civilisation significantly more advanced than ours,” Prof Kaku writes.
Parallel universes and travelling faster than the speed of light are also Class II impossibilities, he argues.

Class III
The only two science fiction phenomena which Prof Kaku believes are truly impossible - Class III impossibilities - are perpetual motion machines and telling the future (precognition), both of which break the fundamental laws of modern physics.
“In considering what the future may hold, then, we should keep an open mind to Class 1 and Class 2 impossibilities,” Prof Kaku writes.
“What is unthinkable today might not be forbidden in a few decades or centuries.”

Source

Master of the Self

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still”

Lao Tzu

Formula for Success

علم و عمل و حال

KNOWLEDGE + WORKS + STATE

= SUCCESS IN THE TARIQ

Hizb al-Bahr

Wird / ورد (pl. Awrad) is a time of day or night devoted to private worship, a daily activity, usually nawafil prayer, Quran recitation, du’a, dhikr etc. Wird also means a watering place: animals coming to water. The root verb “warada” means to arrive, to come, to appear, to show up, to be found, to be met with, to reach.

The scholars of the heart say it is important to have a daily wird, an optional supererogatory worship, that by consistent practice of it you draw closer to Allah. About this Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Saqqaf said whoever has no wird is a qird [monkey].

One of the most powerful wirds is by Imam Abu Hasan al-Shadhili (may Allah sanctify his secret) called Hizb al-Bahr (Litany of the Sea). A special du’a by the Imam and includes ayats from Qur’an. It is the most famous of Imam Shadhili’s Hizbs.

Following links explain more about the Imam and the Hizb -

Imam al-Shadhili

Translation of Hizb al-Bahr

Arabic text

Background story

Audio of recitation by Shaykh al-Kurdi

The Ego

A person who has abandoned his ego reminds you of eternity

Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad

Coltrane and Sufism

You’ve got to go to the source to learn anything, and Sufism is one of the best sources there is.

Donald Garrett (Bassist) to John Coltrane

Mystic Eyesight

Imam Abul Hasan al-Shadhili (ra) said:

Mystical insight is much like the physical eyesight; a tiny piece of dirt in the eye impairs it’s vision as is mystic insight impaired by a small sin.

Importance of Purification of the Soul

This is the longest continuous oath in the Quran, from Surah al-Shams.

1. By the sun and its brilliance,

2. and the moon, following it,

3. and the day, revealing it,

4. and the night, concealing it;

5. by the sky and its construction,

6. and the earth and its extension;

7. by the self and its balance,

8. and its inspiration with its depravity and its conscience;

9. whoever purifies it is triumphant.

Sweetness of Dhikr

أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

…without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest. Q.13.28

Why do we find rest in the dhikr of Allah?

The Soul

• Our souls (ruh, pl arwah) by their nature are drawn to it’s Creator, they remember when in the pre-wordly life Allah asked them “Alastu biRabbikum?” - “Am I not your